sweeping the world

Chapter 490 The Turning Point of the Main Battlefield

"According to the captives, each soldier of the Jin army was only given three days' rations." Tiaoyou held the standard rations of the Jin army in his hand, which was rice balls mixed with coarse grains and a small amount of glutinous rice .He said: "Last night, there was smoke from the fire among the Jin army, and the scouts reported back. Xie Shi burned the grain, but there were no animals left behind."

In fact, whether Xie Shi really burned the fodder is still unknown. After all, as the chief general, Xie Shi just wanted to show a kind of determination.

"Is there any sign that the enemy army is about to retreat?" Xu Zheng is most concerned about this now. He has not received any information from the Jin Army's navy reappearing in the battle area, so he said more seriously: "Be sure to monitor closely. If there is any sign of the Jin army's navy coming, the fleet should go to intercept or destroy it."

The Han army has been monitoring the movement of the Jin army's navy.After the navy of the Jin army sent Xie Shi's troops to the north bank of the Huai River, they retreated back to Shaopi.

The fleet of the Han army has intercepted and wiped out the navy of the Jin army, but the battlefield is after all in the territory of the small court of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The Jin army has too many eyeliners and is widely distributed. In the end, there was still no chance to catch up or stop the Jin army navy.

"It is already being closely monitored." Tiao You should report the situation on the outer battlefield, and said: "After Dangtu was captured by our army, Si Hongzhuang's troops have joined forces with Xie An's troops in Yinling. According to the original plan, they will join forces Afterwards, we should attack Xiquyang, conquer the city behind Shouchun, and cut off the main force of the Jin army from the rear.”

The so-called plan is the goal to be realized, but what Xie An reported was that they found that the Jin army was constantly coming from the southwest direction, and the banner was that the head of the state, Chu Yu, led the army personally, and found that Gu He, Wang Yizhi, Mi Yi, Wang Yizhi, etc. The banner of Kan et al.

There were a lot of generals in the small imperial court of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and there were actually only a few who were relatively capable of fighting. It happened that a few of them who were relatively capable of fighting appeared on the Huainan battlefield.

Xu Zheng nodded and asked, "What news did you hear from General Xie Lang?"

Tiao You was taken aback for a moment, but soon came to his senses, Xu Zheng was asking Xie Ai from Jiangdu, not Xie An who was already in Yinling.He said: "If there is nothing wrong, General Xie Lang has already started crossing the river. After some calculations, he should be fighting the Jin army in the Dantu area?"

The number of Xie Ai's troops did not exceed [-] at the time when they were the largest. What they faced was the defense belt in depth of at least [-] miles built by the small court of the Eastern Jin Dynasty along the Yangtze River.Their crossing of the river was based on the fact that the Jin army's navy was attracted to the Huainan battlefield. Otherwise, even if the Han army fleet had an absolute advantage, the Han army, which is not good at water warfare, would inevitably suffer heavy losses if it forcibly crossed the river.

"The head of the country probably didn't know that Dantu had already landed with our army..." Xu Zheng stroked his chin, paused, and then continued, "Once he finds out, can he continue to bring troops to the Huainan battlefield?"

For the small courts of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Jiankang, the capital of the country, was on the banks of the Yangtze River. They expended their national resources to build a [-]-mile-long span in order to ensure the safety of Jiankang. Only then can the defense depth play its due role.

Tiao You said calmly: "When the time is right, we can send some fleets to visit the area of ​​the puppet capital."

According to the guesses of the Han army, most of the elite of the small imperial court of the Eastern Jin Dynasty were in the Huainan battlefield. The elimination of the Jin army in Huainan was tantamount to completing half of the intention of destroying the country, and it was also a preliminary preparation for the next attack on Jiankang.

The Han army had quite a lot of preparations for its southern invasion, including using Xie Shi's troops as bait to attract the small court of the Eastern Jin Dynasty to send reinforcements to destroy the Jin troops who came behind.

Jiankang is a large city with a population of close to one million people, and the current number of defenders will not be less than 30. In times of emergency, hundreds of thousands of defenders will be mobilized.The Han army really wanted to forcibly attack Jiankang, and it would be difficult to move without sending out [-] or [-].

Attacking a big city with a population close to one million, even Liu Yan would feel appalled thinking about it.To capture such a city, which is still the capital of a country, requires a huge number of troops, it will definitely take a very long time, and the consumption of materials will also be beyond imagination.

The Han State is not only in a state of war with the small imperial court of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, but the war with the Shijie Zhao State has always been in full swing. I don’t know how long the Murong Yan State can be dragged in Liaodong. The rest of the aspects should not be too relaxed , then the southward invasion should be properly arranged strategically.

Since Jiankang is not so easy to fight, and the Han army has begun to invade the south, the first thing to do is to mobilize the troops of the small court of the Eastern Jin Dynasty as much as possible. With the powerful force, the confidence of the small court of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was completely lost with one victory after another. When the time is right, Jiankang does not need to attack at all.

Xu Zheng insisted on having a hunting meeting with Xie Shi on the north bank of the Huai River, which was cooperating with the national strategy. They had successfully used [-] troops to trap the [-] Jin troops led by Xie Shi into the battlefield. A partial division is constantly attacking the city and plundering the territory.

Some partial divisions such as Si Hongzhuang and Xie An, their main task is to build the battlefield, create favorable time and space, and create opportunities for eliminating the Jin army that may come to support Xie Shi's troops.

With the arrival of a new day, the Huainan North Shore battlefield has resumed fighting.

The Jin army still placed the main attack position on the front of the center, and the left and right wings were more restrained and engaged in solid defense operations.The Jin army that played in the first round looked like six or seven military mansions with 3000 people, and their opponents were the Han army from three schools.

It's not that Xu Zheng doesn't want to mobilize more troops to the frontal battlefield in the middle, it's that the terrain there can only accommodate those troops, or that no matter how many troops are deployed, only the front ones can really participate in the battle, so it's best to take turns to participate in the battle The way.

The Jin army who re-launched the offensive discovered that the Han army's arrow array offensives were more frequent and intensive than those on the first day.Such a discovery was reported to Xie Shi of the Chinese Army, and all the generals of the Jin Army present showed worried expressions.

"There was no direct hand-to-hand combat like the first day..." Sun Chuo said in disappointment and worry, "Did the Han army change their general?"

Generally speaking, people in the Jin army thought Xu Zheng was stupid.It’s not for nothing that they think this way, and it’s not some kind of dignified formation to fight in the classical era, but Xu Zheng really has the style of a general in the classical era. If he promises to hunt, he will carry out the agreement. Even the Jin army is most worried. None of the incidents of being attacked by half crossing happened, and what happened later was that they had to send troops to fight hand-to-hand, even though they could block the Jin army's offensive with archery.

If Xie Shi also thought that Xu Zheng was so stupid that it was unreasonable before, but when he was thinking about why the morale of his soldiers would drop so quickly in a day, he suddenly felt that Xu Zheng was not stupid, it seemed...it seemed very smart?
The high morale of the Jin army was based on the premise of being constantly deceived. As a result, the soldiers of the Jin army did not think that the Han army would be so powerful. If the Han army only used long-range attack weapons, even if it blocked the Jin army, The Jin army will also feel that the Han army is only good at long-range equipment, so it may not necessarily lose confidence.

The Han army gave up its absolute long-range attack advantage, even if there was a long-range attack, it only happened against the Jin cavalry.They fought hand-to-hand with the Jin army for a day, and the result showed that the Han army could not only firmly block the Jin army's offensive in the close combat, but also blocked it with a few strikers and was able to push back.The Han army is telling the Jin army with facts, don't think that the Han army can only shoot arrows, and is still strong in melee combat.

False lies were proved by facts. The Jin army seemed to suddenly find that the Han army was not as easy to bully as imagined. It's just that the loss is close to [-]% and there are signs of collapse.

[Strength cannot be faked! 】Xie Shi suddenly felt a little physically and mentally exhausted. Many methods still rely on hard power to achieve results. Facing the gap in strength cannot be truly reversed with some means.He didn't show his inner state, and said calmly: "Adjust the troops on the battlefield, and launch an attack with the shogunate troops as the main force."

The so-called shogunate army is actually Xie Shi's real elite troops. The source of soldiers comes from the private soldiers of the Xie clan as the backbone, and they are supplemented by selected brave men from the army or civilians, equipped with excellent armor and equipment.This army is the trump card in Xie Shi's hands. Its number is less than [-]. It was originally dispatched only when it was necessary.

Xie Wan hesitated for a moment, stood up and responded, "No!"

All the generals and schools in the tent cheered up. The shogunate troops dispatched earlier than expected. They realized that the turning point of the war would appear soon. The outstanding performance of the shogunate troops would definitely save or even arouse higher morale. If there is no outstanding performance or even a loss, then... it will be bad.

The order from the coach was issued, and some topics that were not easy to be disclosed were finished. Waiting for the non-core generals to leave, Xie Shang, who stayed behind on purpose, said: "After the Huaishui River is only the second day of the war, isn't it too early? ..." After hesitating for a while, he smiled wryly and said, "It's too risky."

Xie Wan didn't leave, because none of them were outsiders, so he said directly: "Those are all the elite of the family!"

After the Battle of Huaishui started, the Jin army was either troops from the imperial court or reorganized troops from some second- and third-rate aristocratic families. The powerful armed forces or troops from first-rate aristocratic families fought sideways at most. This is a direct manifestation of family politics.

Xie Wan's words sounded very clear. No matter how many troops were killed or injured by the imperial court, the imperial court should feel distressed. The elite of the family is the foundation of every family. As much as it is lost, there is not much. The disappearance of a family's elite also means that the family should Sinking or disappearing directly, if it can be preserved, it must not be consumed.

"Don't be as naive as those other people (family members)." Xie Shi kept smiling wryly, and said, "They think they can retreat to the south bank even if they can't win. Only a small number of people can really retreat, and the large army will definitely If they are to be thrown on the north bank, they have already crossed the river, and there is no possibility of preserving their strength."

Xie Shang and Xie Wan both knew that this was the truth, and even Xie Shi knew it very well, so that the others didn't understand it.Before they crossed the river and headed north, they had full confidence in using "combination punches" to collapse the Han army. However, the reality was very shocking.

"At least you can try now, can't you?" Xie Shi raised his hand and clenched his fist, and said sonorously: "Not only the shogunate soldiers, but all the other elites will also be on the field. For us today, it's all or nothing!"

None of them are idiots, Xie Shi is already like this, Xie Shang and Xie Wan have fully understood the seriousness of the situation.

Later, Xie Shi mentioned the things he had realized, and couldn't help but say at the end: "Whether it's a mistake or a wise fool, Xu Zheng's reaction has always controlled the general situation on the side of the Han army."

The Jin army on the north bank of the Huai River has not yet contacted the rear. If they knew that there was a Han army attacking Huainan, they would know that what Xie Shi said was true, but it seemed like an afterthought.

The mobilization of the battlefield could not be done silently. Xu Zheng learned that the attacking Jin army had retreated, and his chasing troops hit the iron plate. He immediately knew that Xie Shi on the opposite side was going to do his best.

"It should be Xie's private soldiers." Tiao You was not guessing at all, he said: "The new Jin army's armored equipment is very sophisticated, and the fighting will is also firm."

Whether an army can fight is directly reflected in the difference in will. Two armies with the same determination to fight will affect the configuration of the armor and equipment, and then the number of troops.

There were only more than 3000 Han troops who went to chase the defeated Jin army. They were killed by the pro-shogunate troops from the left and right wings midway. Although the pursuing Han troops adjusted as quickly as possible, the two wings soon fell. After being broken through, it failed to hold out for less than half a quarter of an hour. It was only when the troops from the rear came to rescue that they fought and retreated.

That part of the battle was only a small corner of the many battles on the entire battlefield, but it was a great encouragement to the rest of the Jin army. The Han army retreated in a head-on confrontation for the first time, regardless of whether the Jin army used the majority Bullying the minority will at least let the Jin army see that the Han army is not invincible.

"Attack, you can only attack!" Xu Zheng is very aware of the seriousness of the situation. He has been working hard to disintegrate the morale of the Jin army. Xie Shi immediately played his hole card and said firmly: "The Jin army cannot be recovered. Chance for morale!"

"Send out the cavalry?" Of course, Tiao You also sensed the turning point in the battlefield, and suggested: "The enemy has dispatched the absolute elite. As long as we can defeat them with an absolutely strong offensive, they should lose all confidence."

(End of this chapter)